Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-07-06
THE MIDDLE MILLION.
A Correct Glass of New Workers That Is
mot Mentioned in Print.

Not Mentioned in Print.
Syccidi Correspondence Qfthe Register.
NEW YORK, July 4.-One million good,
honest and steady going people in this
great city live unmentiOned by book or
newspaper. They are neither high enough
nor low enough.
The sensational writer seizes on that
only which is sensational; the stage pre-
seuts only that which is dramatic and
startling; the mor;Ilist points to the vice
and crime, and the financial writer knows
only the milliOnaires. So in all the pre-
sentations of metropolitan life We find
The Villains of New York, " The Dark
Side OF New York" The Kings Of Wall
Street" The Leaders OF Fashion" the
great singers, actresses and aCrObatS, the
elOuuent orators and eminent preachers.
And outside of all these are the middle
mIlhon-toO honest and pure To figure in
thu police records, too independent To he
rlasSed with the mendicants, not rich
enough to be known IN 1.-THE street." and
never-no, neyer-heard OF on Fifth ave
uue, al Newport OF 1T OsLdloSd
As the remote American never sees the
middle million mentioned in the prints,
he uncOnSciollsly forms a habit OF thinking
they 90 not exist. lie mas vivid idea OF
New Works vicious and criminal classes,
OF her extremely poor, her amazingly
wealthy and her desperately wicked; he
realiZes the two extremes OF society be-
cause they are continuously presented to
him. BY 4 similar process we have ar
rived ut the Use OF a common phrase
French vices: the French talk OF them,
therefore they are peculiarly French, but
~ they are rarely mentioned in England,
1t is presumed that they do not exit.
Hence, to avoid like miSappre henSlon here,
let us briefly but positively insist on the
existence OF the middle million in New
York city, for without them we could not
possibly have the upper ten thousand"
or the lower classes.
As one walks through the city he proba-
hlv sees ten or twenty OF the middle mil
lion to one of any other class. Indeed, |
know men who have lived in the city forty
years and never saw noted criminal or
fiuancier. never were IN fashionable party
OF . police court, never starred on the ave
nuc or Summed ON Cherry street. One
NAV live a life in this city and associate
with none but middle class people. | see
them toiling by tens OF thousands i'll the
great manufactures, hauling and packing
for the wholesalers, running the thousands
of retail stores, managing the tens OF thou
sands of details in business requiring small
capital All the many hundreds OF school
teachers in the city are of the middle mil
lion, and nearly all the preachers, Journal
lsts, printers, clerks, bOOkkeepers and So
! 600 women who earn their own living by
work above the grade Of the washtub.
| They have their own societies, churches,
| reading clubs, social circles and scientific
lotteries, and manage to have a great deal
| NJ enjoyment too, though rarely mentioned
| IN the papers. The greatest drawback to
the happiness of the middle million may
he summed NJ IN one wOrd-uncertainty.
Not > per cent own the houses they live
in, and that is always an evil. Though
above want very few of them are rich
enough to remove at short notice to an
other locality and establish home there
| The loss of place or work is an ever present
danger. Now and then ones foot slips and
he and his family slide down into that aw-
| tut gulf where weller the hOpelessly and
miSerably poor.
New York prominence as a commercial
city causes many to ignore the fact that 1t
is also one of the greatest manufacturing
cities of the world. And though we bear
much, especially in hard times" of the
sorrows Of the unemployed, yet it is rare
that one finds a good man idle. Take
sugar refining rs an instance; it ranked
ninth among our national industries in
1850, and nearly 75O. 900 tons of sugar are
refined yearly in this city anu vicinity
This is but one Of many industries in which
employment is regular and strikes rare.
The strike creates sensation; the indus
tries employing ten or twenty times as
many who do not strike appear only IN dry
reports, and do not impress the magma
ton. OF the /, 400, 900 people or there
abouts in this city-that is, Immediately
on Manhattan IsIand-eertainly not more
than $1,000 can be elassed as wealthy.
Perhaps $50, 900 belong TO the miserably
poor, the outcasts and the criminals. All
the rest are in the great staying class, the
middle million. J. II. BEADLE.